Colleague
by grannysknitting
Summary: Sherlock ponders on the importance of choosing the right words. John wants a curry. Friendship is an odd thing.


**Colleague (Sherlock BBC Fanfic)**

**AN - Set between Blind Banker and The Great Game - Spoilers for those two episodes...**

He doesn't let it slow him down when they're out on the case, but in the few quiet moments that he has before the finale in the tunnel, Sherlock thinks about that one little word.

Colleague.

He'd introduced John as his friend - something that he'd never done before, not in all his years as a consulting detective, not back when he was so strung out by the drugs that he could have been speaking in tongues, not in university, or school or even in the nursery when he was meeting his Peers. Sherlock had never said the word friend before and meant the person standing next to him.

So it... bothered him? Hurt him? Upset him?... was strange that John's correction niggled at the back of his mind like that. After all, he was used to people keeping him at a distance, was used to the many and various appellations attached to him, of which 'Freak' was actually one of the kindest.

Even as he'd denied being Sherlock's friend, John had stood up for him, had supported his lie about talking to the secretary outside... all actions that a friend would do, but also the actions of a colleague.

The arrival of Sarah on the scene didn't help. John was interested in her, not as a colleague but as a person, someone to share the closeness that came with going around town together, sharing meals and spending time in each others company doing things that you both enjoyed - or that one enjoyed and the other didn't mind for the sake of the first.

"Hello, Sherlock," John's voice interrupted his brooding, in the way that no one else before ever could. No one had ever been able to walk into a room and not disturb him with their presence or their movements like John could and then speak at _exactly_ the right moment to cause minimum distraction.

A glance over at his... colleague... showed that John had been at the clinic as he'd said, and had treated nearly forty people for varying ailments. He'd had lunch with Sarah but nothing more and was tired but not so tired he wouldn't go out with Sherlock if asked to.

"Busy day, then," Sherlock muttered, making an effort to at least respond to his... colleague... in a way he had never bothered with before. John grinned, not seeming to mind that Sherlock was deducing his day rather than asking, yet another thing that would have made John the perfect _friend.___

_"_Just a bit," John agreed, "You don't seem to have moved from the couch."

"No," Sherlock replied listlessly, "No point, really."

"What's wrong with you, then?" the question was said kindly and John sat on the coffee table and took his pulse before Sherlock was aware the man had intended to. Sherlock let his wrist be grasped for a moment - something else he would never have allowed a... colleague... to do before John - and then pulled away irritably, folding his arms across his chest with a fussy little movement. John didn't seem offended, which just went to show that the man wasn't as observant as Sherlock had thought.

"Nothing," Sherlock muttered, "Certainly nothing for a colleague to worry about."

He hadn't meant to add that last bit and watched as John blinked in surprise before giving him a little grin - the one that said Sherlock was doing something _human_ and John liked to see it.

"You're upset because I called you a colleague," the deduction was an obvious one and Sherlock scoffed in irritation at the man, wishing he would just go away and leave Sherlock to sulk on the couch.

"Sherlock, you _are_ my friend and I'm not ashamed to call you that... in a social setting. But you said you were married to your work, which means that it's very important to you. I thought that as we were out with your Wife, we should be professional about it, that's all," John patted his shoulder and got up off the coffee table, "Have you eaten today? How do you feel about Indian?"

"Fine, I'll get dressed. I know the perfect place," Sherlock announced, his sulk forgotten. He hadn't considered that John was trying to show support for Sherlock's work by keeping things professional in public - as Sherlock should have done from the start.

And when he introduced John as his friend to the proprietor of the Indian restaurant that evening, John beamed and said hello as if they had never been anything else.

END

Disclaimer - settings and characters as depicted in Sherlock BBC not mine. No money being made. Plot is mine.


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